CVE-2007-1180 in WebAPP
Summary
by MITRE
WebAPP before 0.9.9.5 does not check referrers in certain forms, which might facilitate remote cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks or have other unknown impact.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/25/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-1180 affects WebAPP versions prior to 0.9.9.5 and represents a critical security flaw in web application architecture that directly impacts the integrity of form submissions and user authentication processes. This issue stems from the application's failure to implement proper referer header validation mechanisms within specific forms, creating a significant attack vector that undermines the fundamental security controls designed to prevent unauthorized actions. The absence of referer checking functionality essentially removes a crucial layer of defense that should verify the origin of HTTP requests and ensure they originate from legitimate sources within the application ecosystem.
The technical implementation flaw manifests as a missing validation step in the web application's request processing pipeline where the system fails to examine the referer header that browsers automatically include with HTTP requests. This header typically contains the URL of the page that initiated the request, serving as an implicit verification mechanism that helps distinguish between legitimate user actions and maliciously crafted requests. Without this validation, an attacker can craft malicious web pages that, when visited by authenticated users, automatically submit forms to the vulnerable web application without the user's knowledge or consent. This specific weakness falls under the category of cross-site request forgery attacks as defined by the CWE-352 standard, which categorizes CSRF as a vulnerability where an attacker tricks a victim into performing actions they did not intend to execute.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple CSRF exploitation to potentially enable a wide range of malicious activities that could compromise user accounts, manipulate application data, and undermine the overall security posture of the affected system. When an authenticated user visits a malicious site that contains embedded requests to the vulnerable web application, the browser automatically includes the referer header, causing the application to process these requests as if they originated from legitimate user sessions. This opens the door to unauthorized transactions, data modifications, privilege escalation attempts, and session hijacking activities. The vulnerability's potential for exploitation aligns with the ATT&CK framework's reconnaissance and initial access phases, where attackers can leverage such flaws to establish persistent access to user accounts and application functionalities.
Organizations implementing this vulnerable software face significant risks including unauthorized data access, financial transaction fraud, account takeovers, and potential compliance violations that could result in regulatory penalties and reputational damage. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning because it affects the core authentication and authorization mechanisms that should protect user sessions and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive application functions. Security professionals should note that this issue represents a classic example of inadequate input validation and insufficient request origin verification that demonstrates the critical importance of implementing proper security controls at every layer of application architecture. The vulnerability's classification as a CSRF weakness also indicates that similar issues may exist in other parts of the application's codebase where proper validation mechanisms have not been implemented, suggesting that a comprehensive security audit is necessary to identify and remediate additional potential attack vectors.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing robust referer validation mechanisms, incorporating anti-CSRF tokens into all sensitive form submissions, and ensuring that the web application properly validates the origin of all incoming requests. The recommended approach includes implementing strict referer header checking that validates the requesting domain against a whitelist of approved origins, combined with the use of unique tokens for each user session that must be present in every form submission to prevent unauthorized actions. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing additional security controls such as SameSite cookies, proper session management, and comprehensive logging of suspicious activities to detect and respond to potential exploitation attempts. The remediation process should also include thorough code reviews and security testing to ensure that similar vulnerabilities do not exist in other parts of the application architecture, as this vulnerability demonstrates a systemic weakness in the application's security design that requires comprehensive addressing rather than isolated fixes.